Commercial procedures for treating freshly killed poultry or meat generally require that the temperature of the fresh killed product be reduced in accordance with standards established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Conventionally, the fresh killed product is treated with brine to lower the temperature of the food product to about 45.degree. F. This procedure reduces water loss in the product, prevents the growth of bacteria and extends the shelf life of the food product.
The brine treated product is then cut and/or ground as desired prior to packaging. The cutting/grinding step generates heat thereby increasing the temperature of the food product. Prior to packaging the food product, however, it is necessary to lower the temperature of the food product in the range of from about 30.degree. to 40.degree. F.
Conventional methods of chilling the food product after it has been cut/ground and treated with brine involve manual operations. Specifically, the food product is placed in a large., often times rectangular vessel. Dry ice in the form of pellets is shoveled into the vessel to lower the temperature of the food product to meet USDA requirements.
Such manual systems, however, are inefficient and inconsistent. The shoveling of dry ice into the receiving vessel often produces localized cold spots so that a portion of the food product is chilled to lower than necessary temperatures while other portions of the food product remain above desired temperatures. To date, there is no apparatus or method which uniformly distributes the food product within the storage vessel and uniformly treats the food product with a coolant as it is distributed within the vessel.
A system for uniformly distributing a food product within a food receiving vessel while simultaneously uniformly treating the food product with a cryogenic substance is disclosed by the Assignee herein in John Appolonia et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/090,347, filed on Jul. 9, 1993 which is incorporated herein by reference. In this system, there is provided a food distribution means which is operatively engaged to the top of a food storage compartment. On the underside of the food distribution means is a cryogen releasing means which releases a cryogenic substance onto the food product in a uniform manner as the food product is uniformly distributed within the food storage compartment.
The above-identified system works well when the food product enters the food storage vessel at a continuous rate. When, however, the food product is supplied at a variable rate, then the cryogen releasing means must be manually adjusted so as to continue to provide the cryogenic substance in desirable amounts.
It would be an advance in the art and particularly an improvement of the food chilling system described above to provide an automated means of adjusting the rate of cryogen input to the food storage vessel in response to the amount of food product entering the food storage vessel.